I had a team of account executives in remote offices, each of whom managed a number of alumni-association partners. We weren’t always their highest priority so executing on a long list of initiatives wasn’t always easy. I started a 20-minute Daily Huddle (first thing in the AM-if you couldn’t make it, no problem) and gave each person two minutes to list their biggest accomplishment of the previous day, what they wanted to accomplish that day, and what they needed from me or someone else on the call. I kept track of what each person wanted to accomplish and asked the next day (and for a number of days after, if need be) what was getting in the way of completing that task. One benefit of the daily call was that other team members often offered advice based on having dealt with a similar problem with another school and very often someone would volunteer to role-play or help in some way to get the goal accomplished. In addition, having to outline your goals in front of others led to more tangible goals that would have a real impact on the team’s results.

As a result of this and some other execution-focused initiatives, we renewed 100+ relationships (with no losses), protecting $250 million in revenues and significantly reducing the sponsorship fees we were paying, while increasing group-satisfaction scores by 20%. We also surpassed our goals for launching our Affinity Checking product by 200% (endorsements and accounts). All because we spent a little bit of time every day focusing on initiatives that would move the needle.

Interestingly, someone in the class responded to my submission with the observation that people probably worked that much harder to complete tasks and come up with good objectives for the day because they didn’t want theirs to pale by comparison to other team members. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it’s probably true

To be effective: Keep it short. Keep it focused. And try to have it at the same time every day — first thing in the AM.

How do you help your teams — or yourself — be more accountable and execute more effectively. Please share!

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Published by Peter Osborne

My name is Peter Osborne, and I have 25 years of increasingly responsible leadership and P&L experience in sales and account management, strategic communications, production management, curriculum development and delivery, and business journalism.
My managers have consistently chosen me to fix broken or overly-complex processes, asking me to bring consistency to business development activities that were being handled differently across marketing sectors or business units. In these roles, I developed an online sales package with customizable sales templates and objection planners; created a marketing-production unit to reduce errors in the midst of a corporate downsizing; redesigned regulatory control procedures; led RFP responses for 22 successful endorsements from blue-chip partners; and developed more than a dozen multi-module, bottom-line-oriented educational programs.
I was most recently asked to reverse three years of portfolio deterioration in Bank of America's Collegiate credit-card sector, amid serious economic and regulatory headwinds. In that role, I managed 260 partnerships with universities, alumni associations, and athletic departments. My team drove profitability in the face of rising loan losses by gaining access to new products and marketing channels; spearheading development of relationships with on-campus banking centers to reduce marketing expenses; realigning staff assignments to reduce travel costs and improve partner service; and, perhaps most important, driving an aggressive yet disciplined contract renewal strategy.
I'm most proud of building a world-class negotiating organization at MBNA, transforming the focus to an organizational core competence that impacted relationships with thousands of affinity programs in the sports, co-branded, professional, collegiate, and financial institution markets.
Prior to joining MBNA America in 1982 as the director of media relations and internal communications, I was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor within the American City Business Journals and Gannett chains, and a military officer who served as an Air Defense Artillery battery platoon leader and executive officer, directing my battalion's relocation to Fort Polk, LA, from Fort Bliss, TX.
I am a 1981 graduate of Syracuse University with a B.S. in Newspaper Journalism, which means I suffer through football season, enjoy basketball season, and celebrate during lacrosse season. I have been married for 20 years and have four children. I enjoy coaching youth sports, playing fantasy baseball and football, and driving my kids to their various practices, games, and dance classes.
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6 thoughts on “Improve execution and accountability with a Daily Huddle”

I really like your idea of a daily huddle. I work with and as part of distributed teams and this would help build teamwork and a sense of daily accomplishments, especially on longer projects. Why not extend it to Twitter with a #dailyhuddle hashtag?

A Daily Huddle is a great example of increasing the meeting pulse of an team. Speaking out loud has great self-motivational benefits like someone mentioned to you. We are all just human beings. Our ususal behavior is attend meeting A, commit to a deliverable for meeting B, doing nothing for 95% of the gap between A & B, work like mad at the end to complete the deliverable in time for B. How do you get more energy sooner? Shrink the distance between A & B. EOS weekly Level 10 meetings are based on that theory. Daily Huddles are taking it one step further. I like them for all teams!

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Peter Osborne

Peter Osborne helps businesses -- and, increasingly, individuals -- sharpen their brand and strategic messages and eliminate barriers to marketing success. Throughout his career, he's always been a "bulldog" who brings simplicity (i.e., consistency, discipline, and structure) where it's needed. For more about me, my background, and my goals for this blog (including why you should subscribe), click on my About page.

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If you're interested in exploring a potential client relationship, feel free to send me a note at peter@bulldogconsultant.com or check out my webpage at www.bulldogconsultant.com